2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the release of the movie Zulu. Seeing this film on the big screen on its initial release helped spark my lifelong interest in British colonial history. I have run Rorke's Drift games in 54mm before, but after the surprise gift of a set of Conte Collectible buildings, I decided to run a game based on the movie and not history. As it turned out, using the movie defense layout made it more difficult for the British with a larger area to defend, which worked well for the wide screen shots of the movie but handicapped the British as the distances made it challenging to plug gaps. Victory conditions for the Zulus were to capture two out of three: the hospital, the storehouse/church and the redoubt. Victory condition for the 70 British was to score 150 kills, approximately half the historic number, which would stop the attack. Rules used were The Men Who Would Be Kings, with special rules for the fight in the hospital. Following the movie, I even had cattle in the kraal, ready to stampede the unsuspecting Zulus. The Zulu players were limited to three units per side in the initial assault, with recycled units being placed randomly. There were nine units of sixteen Zulus in the first assault. The British were allowed to use one unit, spending two turns, to construct the redoubt. The Zulus centered their main attack on the northeast corner of the defenses, which were lightly defended. They managed to climb onto the roof of the storehouse/church and infiltrate into the redoubt and the church. Progress was slower for the Zulus on the west and northwest, but poor fire dice rolling allowed the Zulus to come over the south wall and from then on the British were doomed. When I have run the game before, using the historic layout, the result was a much closer game, but, even though the odds were against the British players this time a good time was had by all.
P.S. The British had to roll any pair of doubles once a turn to release the cattle. They finally made the roll on the last turn, too late to affect the outcome.
The soldiers in the hospital were not allowed to begin evacuating the wounded until the Zulus attacked the building.
Lt. Bromhead and Corporal Schiess defend the south ramparts
The cattle, ready to stampede
South ramparts stand ready
First Zulu move on the north ramparts
Full screen shot of the north ramparts
Lt. Chard defending the north ramparts
The fight inside the redoubt
Zulus inside the church
Poor Surgeon Reynolds
The north ramparts hold.
Zulus inside the south ramparts
